Kick out the JAMs – new Dacia Duster is chariot of choice for the 'Just About Managing'

Many have since claimed credit for reinventing Dacia, but the gig was almost entirely former Renault boss Louis Schweitzer's.

“It was the best idea I ever had," said Schweitzer. "The Logan was to be modern, reliable and affordable; under €5,000."

Dacia was founded in 1966 as Romania’s state-owned carmaker. It built Renault 8s and then Renault 12s under licence - about 2.5 million of them in 38 years. Renault purchased the company in 1999 with the aim of revamping the name and the Piteşti plant in Romania to build what was code named Project X90, aka Logan.

Schweitzer planned a simple, low-cost world car, a weird, back-to-the-future model, using labour-intensive 1950’s building techniques with modern production management. Logan was launched in 2004 and came to the UK in 2013. Despite criticism and a few hiccups, it's been a success, spawning amongst others an MPV and a pickup version; the 2008 Sandero hatchback; and 2010 Duster SUV.

The Dacia Logan was a brilliant reinvention of the brand, albeit one that didn't reach British roads

Renault has since capitalised on its badge building investment in South America and the Far East by badging Dacias as Renaults and even Nissans. These days Dacia is sold in what Tom Smith, European product manager for Sandero, calls "Euro-Med" – Europe and North Africa. In the 12 years since relaunch, four million Dacias have been sold, plus a lot more if you count the ones not badged as Dacias.

Schweitzer didn't think Dacia would be sold in Europe at all, only grudgingly conceding that a few French farmers might like a utility version. Yet even back then we could see a general fatigue with the spiralling size and cost of family automobiles dripping with pointless features and suggested that there could be an inverted middle-class cachet in owning a Dacia – if I'd had the sense to put money on it, it might have been the best idea I ever had.

Since then, of course, we've seen the rise of the political class of Just About Managing (Jams), not to be confused with Hardworking Families, but all of whom value a new car at a bargain price.

"There is a budget market of course," says Louise O'Sullivan, head of Dacia in the UK and Ireland. "That's typically Sandero, where 70 per cent of sales are of the [middle] Ambience trim, but with Stepway, Duster and Logan, most sales are around the [top] Lauréat level."

In other words, while Dacia offers one of the cheapest cars in the UK (the £5,995 Sandero Access, which doesn’t even have a radio), very people buy it, instead ‘splurging’ on bigger Dacia models with more stuff attached.

Cars like the Sandero have brought new car ownership within reach to millions of people

In 2017, the Dacia range is being revamped with more brightwork, new lamps and cabins more palatable to both the eye and the posterior. There's also a much-requested automatic transmission for the Duster SUV albeit with front-wheel drive only, which is the bulk of the market anyway. That's the car we're concentrating on here.

When we first tested Duster it was a no-frills family SUV, but rivals did it better. Those rivals have now pulled away and only Ssangyong's Tivoli XLV treads the similar value path.

New Dacia Duster driven

Climb into the Duster and it still offers a monochrome world of black plastic only now variegated with different textures and the occasional flash of ersatz chromium or aluminium trim. It's dull but not offensive and seems well put together with decent shut lines and no squeaks or rattles.

The seats are comfortable, but the driving position is slightly odd with a steering wheel that only adjusts for rake. In front of the driver is a three-dial instrument binnacle, clear and conventional. The centre console presents a time-warped vision of how things used to be, with a low-mounted touch screen, badly affected by reflections, and near-invisible heater controls that require memorising like a Mission Impossible brief.

There's USB and auxiliary plugs above the screen and 12-volt charging sockets in front and back. Storage space is improved, though the new door cards with window-lift buttons, take a bite out of your knee. In the back there's room enough to seat three adults and the seat backs fold 60/40 onto the bases to give through-loading but not a flat load bed.

The interior of the Dacia Duster has, in this instance, been significantly enhanced by the presence of a Mediterranean beach

The 475-litre boot is big but shallow and the spare wheel, for which Dacia will sting you £150, is slung under the floor. This version has a maximum towing weight of 1.2 tonnes, though the diesel manual 4x4 will tug 1.5 tonnes.

Talking of options, metallic paint is £495, leather upholstery £500, and a reversing camera £400, though it's standard on the £15,895 Prestige model as is the 7in touch screen and special 16in alloys. Our test car was sitting on 215/65/16 Continental Mud and Snow tyres.

Start her up and the 1.5 turbodiesel feels eager and sounds noisy. The gearlever slots into Drive with manual changes available by pushing the lever to one side; there are no steering-wheel paddles.

The large boot of the Duster makes it a compelling choice for families, though the safety ratings may put some off

It's spritely out of the blocks, though the engine will pull the steering around if you accelerate hard with a bit of lock on. It's geared well, too, with the six speeds set close and about 70mph in top seeing about 3,750rpm on the dial – high revving but not frantic.

Unlike Dusters of old, this one steers reasonably. There's some movement in the tyres before the nose responds and there's not a lot of feedback, but gone is the sullen unresponsiveness of previous iterations. It rides tidily, too. Those tall tyres make a bit of a racket, but they journey nicely through the bumps and while the body rolls through corners it's progressively damped.

Dynamically the Duster has been improved, but it won't worry class leaders

Push it and the tail will try to swing out if you lift off in a corner, but the handling is generally safe and nose-on understeer is the main chassis response. Dynamically, a Seat Ateca or Volkswagen's Tiguan would eat this alive, but Duster is by no means disgraceful. I drove it for an hour and a half through mountainous Croatian roads and it felt secure, comfortable and not at all tiring. I managed to squeeze 40.4mpg out of it against the provisional Combined economy of 62.7mpg.

Previous Dusters made virtue of their low price but were grossly underdeveloped. It made them hard to live with and a poor choice compared to a good used rival. These days, as Tom Smith explains: "we borrow." What he means is the Dacia won't initiate development of new drivelines, but if they exist within the Renault-Nissan Alliance, they can buy them in at marginal cost.

Overall, the new Duster represents an improvement

What Dacia has done is put love into the execution of its models and Duster shows it. Perhaps that's part of being now concentrated on the more discerning markets of EuroMed but the Duster is no longer cheap and nasty, it feels like good value and if the drive is a bit of throwback to cars of a decade ago, it's none the worse for it. I'd still prefer a used Yeti, but by not half as much as I used to. If not yet a great idea, Duster is starting to look less and less like a bad one.

PRICE/ON SALE: From £14,995 in Lauréate trim, as tested £15,895 in Prestige trim. On sale now.

POWER/TORQUE: 108bhp @ 4,000rpm, 184lb ft @ 1,750rpm

TOP SPEED: 105mph

ACCELERATION: 0-62mph 11.9sec

FUEL ECONOMY: 64.2mpg/62.7mpg EU Urban/Combined. On test 40.4mpg

CO2 EMISSIONS: 116g/km

VED BAND: 110 to 130g/km £160 for first year, £140 thereafter

VERDICT: Much more than just a new gearbox, this Dacia revamp shows how much some simple attention to detail can transform a car. The Duster SUV might be at the value-for-money end of the market, but it's also quite good to drive, practical and surprising comfortable.

TELEGRAPH RATING: Three out of five stars

RIVALS

Arguably the biggest direct competitor is the SsangYong Tivoli XLV, big brother to the vanilla Tivoli. SsangYong is another bargain brand, though Dacia may even hold more cachet. Well-made and surprisingly good to drive, this Korean-built crossover will cost you around £20,000 for a rather slushy automatic. Prices start at £18,750 and SsangYong offers a strong warranty.

Also in this segment are the Suzuki SX4 Cross, which costs from £15,000, and the Fiat 500x, which starts at around £500 less. Neither of those figures will pay for the 4x4 versions, though – expect to pay £24,000 and £20,000 respectively for the four-wheel-drive automatic versions of these cars.

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